Galleria de Tobin

Naked walls are a thing around here.  If you’ve checked out our House Tour pages, you’ve probably noticed.  There are always plans to hang stuff but then babies, time, other projects, and indecision get in the way.  Not anymore (she says after experiencing the satisfaction and motivation that filling a couple of walls brings…we’ll see how long that lasts, won’t we?  Sebastian cackles in the background.)

Enter our boring hallway.

When planning gallery walls and collages and all that shebang, the hallway definitely wasn’t on the top of the list to fill as it’s probably the most inconspicuous spot in the house.  Guests walk down it to get to their home away from home but that’s about it.  I travel it’s short road only to grab something craft-related for a project or some fabric I have stashed in the guestroom.  Well, now it’s a walk down memory lane as well.  (Cue the oldies.)

A long time ago when I was perusing this thing they called “Pinterest”, this pin popped up in my feed:

(originally via Martha Stewart)

I loved the way the frames were all separated by a wide line and lined up along that line, top and bottom.  I had to have it and it had to be in the hallway.  That was the long-term plan, apparently. 

Well, since I had 20 frames to work with after our big Dirt Cheap haul, this pin was finally going to come to life.

It was seriously one of the easiest projects because all it took was a little measuring and hammering.  No collage working and re-working, no puzzling frames together in a big blob, none of that.  Just me and a few straight lines.  Here’s how I did it and how you can hang one of your very own.

First of all, this is a great project if you have a bunch of different sized, different types of frames (hit up your local thrift stores).  Like in the inspiration picture, you can layer frames on top of each other or you can have a couple of single rows like I do.  Either way the focus goes toward the vertical line down the middlestraight lines where the tops and bottoms line up.  (I know Walmart usually has an end cap full of frames of the same style for $3 each.)  Grab a bunch of different sizes or grab a bunch of the same size and alternate which way you hang them. 

Next, figure out a simple layout.  I laid all my frames out on the floor just as they’d hang on the wall to make sure my alternating pattern was going to look okay.  (Hint:  It does, so really you can skip this step if a’alternating you go.)  Then, to figure out at what height I wanted the frames, I took out the paper inserts in each frame and taped them to the walls (measurements below).
     

Once all that was squared away, I grabbed our level and (lightly) penciled in two lines along which I’d hang the frames.

Then I grabbed my handy dandy picture hanger – a piece of wood with a nail through the end:

(side view)

Then I hung the frame to be hung on it, held it exactly where I wanted it on the wall…

and pressed, making an imprint in the wall where the nail would go.  (If you don’t want to make one, this picture hanging tool would be a great investment!) 

See?

Pound a nail in, hang a frame, move on.  (Oh and don’t forget to erase/wipe off your pencil lines!)

Here are the measurements I used:

And that’s it.  Bada bing, Bada gallery wall.

As for the pictures in the frames, I just grabbed a few of our favorites off of Instagram, resized and edited them by adding the ‘Bob’ filter to each in pixlr.com (the pixlr-o-matic version), and got them printed (and delivered cause you know this mom ain’t braving the public alone quite yet), and inserted.

Since all of the frames were all stuffed in a shopping cart in close quarters, they’re all a little scuffed up here and there but it’s nothing that a little paint can’t fix.  I’m not doing it tomorrow but I’ve been dreaming of repainting our living room and hallway a bright white to lighten things up.  If that happens, how pretty would it be to spray paint these frames a pale gold?  Someday…

So, do you have any secrets/tips to easy gallery wall-ing?  Do share.  I’ve only got 50-some more walls to go!  :)